It comes with aging. How do we preserve and pass on the things we value, like heritage? Dilemma: what you value may not be of value to your descendants.
Heritage is easily lost. Marriage may hide an Italian surname in the case of females. Catholicism is not a proprietary religion that carries our ethnicity with it, unlike Jews, Greeks, Hindus, and others. Even our traditions are expendable to younger generations. So, how do we pass the torch?
Some 16 million Americans claimed Italian heritage in the 2020 census. There’s no lack of Italian restaurants and pizzerias to proclaim our cuisine. Hollywood and the media have an inexhaustible library of films showcasing our dark side and have elevated our directors and stars to sainthood. These may be all the pride that most Italian Americans are happy to pass on.
Sure, there is some Italian history that fuels our pride – Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance, the Roman Empire, even Christopher Columbus. But the average Italian American sources his pride locally, through family, food, and entertainment.
who torched our heritage.
As I write this, the first annual Paisan Con is being held in Fairfield, New Jersey. This indoor weekend event features sports figures and an abundance of supporting actors from Mafia films. Attendees will meet Italian Hip Hop performers (didn’t know such a genre existed) and participate in an awards ceremony tonight (based on what?) The promoters acknowledge that Paisan is a corruption of paesano (fellow countryman), and have adopted the ‘whattsa matta you?’ bunched fingers greeting on posters. All in good fun, no doubt; including directional signs with the words Ova [over] Here ». I can only imagine them having a video loop from Donny Brasco explaining the versatile phrase ‘fuhgedaboudit.’ But, how far does ‘laughing at ourselves’ go until it’s embarrassing? [Our Senior Analyst in New Jersey, Anthony Vecchione, brought this event to my attention.]
Elsewhere last week, an Italian American ‘umbrella’ organization hosted its second annual “future leaders” gathering in Florida. Passing the torch apparently requires us to educate twenty-somethings across the country. These young folks have the spirit, and with all expenses paid, they happily gathered for an Italo-fest. The real challenge is to channel this youth into torch-bearing rather than party-going. It’s not so much what takes place at a convention as what takes place between conventions.
official Paisan Con greeting.
The sad fact is that young Italian Americans have little knowledge of Italian American history or issues important to many of us. Remember your 20s? Your goals were earning a living, dating, and marriage. Today’s youth has debt, high-priced toys, and expensive social lives. For the unattached, conventions can be a dating venue, rather than a place for cadre development. One innovation employed in such gatherings is to not invite old-timers; they’re too critical and too jaded – like me! Let the young people be free to reinvent the wheel!
In one video of the conclave, an older organizer addressing the young crowd says, “We can learn from you.” I suppose he meant that his organizations can learn how to recruit more young people by listening to the attendees. (I’m sure free travel, room and board are great recruitment tools!) If he meant we could learn new perspectives on the Italian heritage, the youthful reply would be to “Chill out!”
Young folks don’t condemn Mafia movies – who has the time to protest and write letters? Embrace the artistry! Which invites a question: are The Godfather, Goodfellas, Casino, The Sopranos, and the myriad mob movies popular among the under 40 crowd? These films were in our faces for decades, forcing us to oppose them. But maybe they’re ancient history to Millennials and Gen Zs. How many have actually seen these movies?
Finally, cultivating our young is well-intended, if not expensive; but along with free meals and karaoke, an insidious agenda item has made its way into the mix: “Are Italians White?” Born in academia some years ago is the contention that Italians, as victims of Anglo violence and discrimination, should be reclassified by the Census Bureau as ‘Euro-Mediterraneans,’ not White. Such an appeal was recently made by the umbrella organization that sponsors the youth gatherings. Thankfully, it was rejected by the Census people. But I’ve been told that such thinking is gaining popularity among younger Italian Americans.
Is this where the torch is heading? -JLM
These are the sorts of discussion that every Italian American organization is having, but I may add many volunteer fraternal orgs too. Sometimes the issue focuses on “relevancy”, Just how relevant is your heritage your daily life and functioning? I guess that is why “food” still relates, but moving beyond that gets to be problematic.
We sometimes imbued heritage with those who have “made it”, yet they have never been strong advocates of their heritage. These are unchartered waters, and depends a lot on the local scenes. A friend from Italy once told me that even “volunteerism” is a North American concept, and not usually found in European cultural institutions. But as the discussion pertains to Italian American organizations, really the most relevant target population, are outreach to those who are in their 50’s and 60’s, who have raised their families , have established careers. and a little surplus time. (saying that, these organizations can consume major amounts of energy time and commitment). So the question becomes “To what end?”
Each person has to decide that for him or herself, but part of my response as a “history buff” is the question of legacy within the context of the USA, and its make up, while at the same time keeping my personal connections with my roots. So , if relevant to whom ever, how to tap into an Italian American identity is something (or a building block) one can build up. it doesn’t have to be a “cookie cutter” response, but that is what we need to be addressing.